Author
Topic: Intro, etc. (Read 4055 times)

Just wanted to introduce myself. I took a class in beekeeping in 1998 in Sacramento, CA and finally started with my own bees this April. I live way up in Northeastern California, so you can put me in Nevada if you want to make your map look a little better (I'm only 8 miles from the state line).

I've got one hive with a marked russian queen and I've been reading the posts about not finding queens when checking hives. I've been able find her at each inspection until I added my third super. I looked everywhere and didn't see any eggs (I'm somewhat farsighted - so it's a challenge for me anyway), found four queen cells, weird comb and started to panic. I took the time to remove all of the queen cells, comb and excess propolis. Still didn't see my queen.

Waited two days and checked the top two supers. No queen. No eggs. Lots of honey. Sigh.

Waited two days and opened the hive again yesterday. Went through the top super - bees beginning to draw out comb. No queen.Went through the second super. Removed more bits of burr comb. Lots of honey, some capped. No queen. Moved second super onto first super. Started going through the bottom super. Saw some youngish larvae. Finally saw an egg and more larvae. Got to the very last frame in the very last super. There she was! Did I mention - THE LAST FRAME IN THE BOTTOM SUPER??! Sheeze.

Now I will leave them alone for ten days. They've earned a break from me.

Anonymous

Living out in the "boonies" like I do, I don't have a club to bother with my newbie questions. It's kind of good in a way, because I have to take chances on my own and I don't think that I would be so assertive if I had someone handy to ask about every single curious behavior that I see.. I just have to push ahead on my own. So far, so good. From everything I've read, the first year is the easiest, so the true test will be next year for me and the bees.

If that's not the case, I'm sure that you will hear from me this season..

Anonymous

I live up in the Northeastern corner of the state. I'm about as far as you can go in the corner and still be in California. Modoc County - about 8 miles from Nevada and 30 miles from Oregon. (Northeast of Glenn County)It's an agricultural area. Cattle and alfalfa and feed grasses, plus Great Basin high desert plants, such as sagebrush, rabbit brush and bitter brush.

The bees seem to like it, but were slow to start, as we have a pretty short season. We should get our first frost about October 1.

Hi - I am a total newbie to beekeeping and am just now thinking about starting a hive or 2 in Modoc County (near goose lake). I'd really appreciate any help regards species that are doing well for you and tips on over wintering protection. thanks!claudia

I've never bought anything but Italians. Lots of people choose carnys, russians, or some other bee, because of their frugal behavior with stores, proclaimed resistance to mites etc. You have access to alot of queen breeders up your way, and plenty of people that shake bees for packages. Get a couple colonys going and try a few different types.

Glad to have you aboard as all the others stated!!! Happy New Year to YOU and to ALL MEMBERS, I wish HEALTH, INNER PEACE, COMFORTABLE PERSONAL WEALTH, plus ALL the TOYS SANTA forgot to bring you :lol:

The feeling of killing off queen cells and THEN seeing NO QUEENS is a frightful thing. I have made it a habit to take an old shipping cage and make a MAKE-SHIFT NUC to place some workers and the excess queen cells (cut a chuck right out of the frane - they'll fix it eventually) and raise a queen or two JUST INCASE I killed the queen in my inspection.

Glad everything is working out well for you - that is always a good thing!!!!

I'm really glad you gound the forum, I hope you find the time to come here often and keep us abeat on your hive's growths - we all enjoy the good stories and sadly learn from the not so grand tales.

I've had some cold days and two good cleansing flights - one made my wifes green car look as if it had the measles - lol. She didn't exactly find it as funny - lolol.

I'm at work, where I have returned to after a 5 day weekend around Christmas. It is Christmas Eve and I'll be here until about 12:30am Jan 1, 2006 letting a co-worker (who is also celebrating his 40 birthday) enjoy midnight with his family - no sense BOTH of us getting fouled up because of the holiday.

Personally, I don't have many rememorable NYEs, but at the age of 47 I hope to have a few more chances at a great chance to see the new year enter. I've spent 11 of the last 19 at work, 4 at home asleep and the others with my wife just watching TV. Only one actual party that I can remember and I was a bacholor at the time.

I did mention in a previous post that I bought for my wife (and myself) tickets to Cirque Du Soliel (the French touring "Circus of the Suns") in July, I'm really waiting on that - and as I sit here typing I'm listing to LAST NIGHTS ART BELL (for those who do not know him - he founded Coast to Coast AM After-Dark) radio the largest late night radio show in the USA and I'm a online member where I have 9 months available in streaming and 3 months available in MP3 always available to me.

I'm playing it on my new 6GIG Creative ZEO Micro MP3 player - a terrific mini MP3 player which I have both my massive website and the forum backed up on, PLUS about 500 songs and nearly 50 Coast to Coast shows to alway listen to.

So, I'm a tech lover, not the most tech savvy guy, but I love toys and this MP3 player really has some awesome sound quality whether I use the ear buds (wich come with the player) or the Bose Noice Reduction Headset.

MY GOALS for 2006

I have had a few people (less than 5 - honest) donate to the forum to help with the necessary growth of bandwidth, so I know I need to go "out of pocket" and expand the forum - there is so much I can do - Video files (both insturctional) and entertainment based for the members of the forums and the guests of the website.

Also, I have dozens upon dozens of fully produced audio shows which are quite entertaining (I'm told, but I felt so anyways -lol) and also a handful of new options for the members to easily build and share their own beekeeping blogs complete with embedded clips of their choice. It really comes down to available space to place the data and I refuse advertizing and I think I have given up on the idea of Beemaster tee-shirts, coffee cups, etc.. The reason, cost vs. lablr is very tough to obtain profit.

What I am planning though (and this is a first to here) is produce a SLIDESHOW HIGH RES PHOTO COLLECTION with approx 1000 images and ALL with audio sound track. This one or two CD collection will be 1) easy to mass produce for me, 2) inexpensive to ship and 3) not only offer the members hundreds of original Beemaster hi-res images, but a massive wallpaper collection to bring their desktop to life - this is a realistic way to make money for the site and give something personal and multifunctional for anyone buying to CD/s.

I have many many quality photos, but I want the reslution to be 1280X1024 - which about I think will satisfy MOST all people in their description of Hi-Res - personally I'm pleased with 1024X768 but I want to give EVEYONE the biggest bang for their buck.

The pictures will cover many topics, most notably bee related, but then flowers, wildlife, scenery and other pleasant and relaxing images - plus a relaxing meditative sound-track. I want to creative an experience, not just a disk filled with wallpaper images.

Those who know I was the Covershot Image Photographer for the Beekeeping for Dummies Book www.beemaster.com/bkd.html and those who have visited my gallery page at http://www.beemaster.com/wallpap.html will get an idea of the photos I will be compiling. I promise them to be worth every penny and the profit level (compaired to cost and shipping) makes it a feasable way to grow the forum to (and even beyond) its potential. I have a real great feeling about this.

PS.... I'll love to hear feedback on this idea. I'm not sticking to the cost, but I'm looking somewhere between $12.00 and $14.00 for the collection which with come on Lite-Scribed and Autographed hard case. I think this is a fare market price for something so special to the wonderful members of this ever growing forum. Best of all, it's a great way to give to the forum and get something unique in return!

As you can tell. I do tend to get off the topic alot - lol. I'm a prolific writing and often I ramble, but new members excite me and talking positive things while stuck here at work makes for a cheerier night.

So welcome again, checkout those photos (note - the Beekeeping for Dummies book liked above - is a one of a kind, the final version that went to print REVERSED the image of the worker bee - so the only image that looks as this one does is at that page!!!)

Happy New Year, please post often and I know you will find the members to be the friendliest bunch of people you ever come across - the forum is less than 2 years old (believe that or not) and even during a lull of posting the last month or so, my server feedback tells me that MANY people are reading nearly every post, I just assume they are too busy to reply, but Family ALWAYS comes first - I'm happy just to know they are checking in, even if the can't always find the time to write back. Happy and safe New Year to you and everyone aboard!!!!

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